6.5 PRC-- Anybody have any thoughts or have one?

[SageRat Shooter]

You could always do the 280 or 280 AI. Fine cartridges and gives you a little edge ballisticaly.

Thanks for the recommendation Robinhood! Never really heard about that one before. Been doing some reading on the cartridge and am liking what i'm hearing so far. It might be exactly what I am looking for.

[6.5savageguy]

What does this mean? What is different about the bolt head for a 264 WM and a 6.5PRC?

I believe NOTHING, seems they are both standard magnum (.540) bolt heads. The 30-06, 270, 284, 280 & 280AI as well as others are the standard .470 bolthead.



"Like Frank said, it's a .264WM in a standard bolt face case"

I don't see where Frank said this. If I'm wrong my apologies but it should read "Like Frank said, it's a .264WM in a standard MAGNUM bolt face case" otherwise the same boltface.

[6.5savageguy]

Thanks for the recommendation Robinhood! Never really heard about that one before. Been doing some reading on the cartridge and am liking what i'm hearing so far. It might be exactly what I am looking for.

I have a 6.5-284 and a 280 AI, both LA Remington 700s similar in weight, stock etc. The recoil impulse is much sharper on the 280AI vs the 6.5-284 with a 150 vs 143 respectively. It's not brutal but there none the less.

[SageRat Shooter]

I have a 6.5-284 and a 280 AI, both LA Remington 700s similar in weight, stock etc. The recoil impulse is much sharper on the 280AI vs the 6.5-284 with a 150 vs 143 respectively. It's not brutal but there none the less.

I appreciate that information as well. If I'm going to make that change, I'm going to run the 160 grain VLD bullets for sure. If I can get it to 2900+ fps, that will give me the ballistics I'm looking for... I will also have some kind of muzzle brake on it whether it be directional or radial.

Next question: If I'm going to run VLD bullets, will I need to have it "Match" chambered to take advantage of case capacity and the long VLD pill?

[6.5savageguy]

A regular chamber should be fine for a VLD and a .280 AI is likely chambered to put the heavier bullets out in the neck.

[SageRat Shooter]

A regular chamber should be fine for a VLD and a .280 AI is likely chambered to put the heavier bullets out in the neck.

Is that going to be the same for a straight 280 also? I'll probably have to be upsizing .270 brass or have to order .280 Win (nickel) brass and then fire form them to go .280 AI. Unless you know of a source for good .280 AI brass??

Thanks again,

[6.5savageguy]

Is that going to be the same for a straight 280 also? I'll probably have to be upsizing .270 brass or have to order .280 Win (nickel) brass and then fire form them to go .280 AI. Unless you know of a source for good .280 AI brass??

Thanks again,

I've never had a straight .280 so can't say. You would have a better chance seating a VLD long though than a conventional bullet IMO.

[Shortbox4x4]

Is that going to be the same for a straight 280 also? I'll probably have to be upsizing .270 brass or have to order .280 Win (nickel) brass and then fire form them to go .280 AI. Unless you know of a source for good .280 AI brass??

Thanks again,

Nosler made 280AI a SAAMI standard. So they make formed 280AI brass and ammo.

If you have a older 280AI chamber reamer there might be some slight differences between that and the SAAMI spec.

I’m not a fan of nickel plated brass. Why? The nickel plating can flake off especially during reloading etc....the nickel is very hard and can scratch the bore and chamber.

VLD bullets vs a regular or just say different bullets....to get close to the rifling you have to play with the seating depth. VLD’s typically because of the longer pointer ogive you will seat the bullet out further in a given chamber to closer to the rifling.

If you want make up a couple of dummy rounds of where you want your bullet seated. Keep one for reference. I then send one to a reamer maker like JGS and ask them to make a chambering reamer to match the sample round. Then you can get it the way you want it.

[Shortbox4x4]

For a few years back around late 90’s I ran a 280AI for some of the local sniper rifle matches. I shot the 168SMK for 300 yards and less and the 180 VLD’s for anything past 300 yards.

[6.5savageguy]

The Nosler brass Frank mentions is top notch with that being said the Lee FL die I had would not bump the shoulder. I trimmed the die bottom and got it to work but couldn't get the bottom inside smoothed out enough to not scratch the brass.

I sent 3 fired cases to Redding and they sent a FL die that worked with my chamber. They said it was a Sammi chamber so the Lee die was obviously pre Sammi.

I got the rifle for payment in moving some shipping containers and it was an early 80s Remington 700 with a Shilen barrel on it. Not my favorite rifle but it's kinda grown on me.

[Shortbox4x4]

Trimming the die bottom is one way 6.5savageguy. When I think something like this is happening where the die doesn’t seem to be sizing the brass enough or cannot get it to bump the shoulder....take the shell holder for the press and take .015” off the top of it. That’s usually more than enough to give you more adjustment down on the die.

We had to do it for a local customer (from IL) a few months ago and I had to do it for my 6BRA. I took off .015”. Needed about .009” to .010”. Once I found how much I need to bump the case about .0015” to .002”....that when I go to set up my die I put a .005” shim on top of the shell holder and run the die down till it bottoms out on the shell holder/shim and then tighten up the lock ring.

I’d rather mess up a $6 shell holder then to mess up the die and have to send it back.

Even though the shell holders are some what hard I have no problem putting in the collet of the Hardinge lathe and can just face it off. Other option is to put it in the surface grinder. Either way will work.

[6.5savageguy]

Trimming the die bottom is one way 6.5savageguy. When I think something like this is happening where the die doesn’t seem to be sizing the brass enough or cannot get it to bump the shoulder....take the shell holder for the press and take .015” off the top of it. That’s usually more than enough to give you more adjustment down on the die.

We had to do it for a local customer (from IL) a few months ago and I had to do it for my 6BRA. I took off .015”. Needed about .009” to .010”. Once I found how much I need to bump the case about .0015” to .002”....that when I go to set up my die I put a .005” shim on top of the shell holder and run the die down till it bottoms out on the shell holder/shim and then tighten up the lock ring.

I’d rather mess up a $6 shell holder then to mess up the die and have to send it back.

Even though the shell holders are some what hard I have no problem putting in the collet of the Hardinge lathe and can just face it off. Other option is to put it in the surface grinder. Either way will work.

Thanks Frank,

That's what I did the next time I ran into the problem on my 7-08 AI heavy gun. I polished about .010 off the shellholder with a piece of 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper by laying the sand paper on a flat surface and working the shellholder in a figure 8 pattern on it.

[SageRat Shooter]

Thanks again for all the info guys... If I am going to go down this road I'm going to put it on my Savage 111 action (5 years or so old) and order a CBI already chambered. While I do understand how to hand load and seating depths, I don't want a big headache in the reloading process. I understand the basics but I'm nowhere near an expert... More of a plug and play guy myself, just not so much that I am ok with running factory ammo.

I've had great results from my other builds using CBI barrels, I was just thinking this one would have similar results.